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There are an estimated 1.4 billion cotton T-shirts are sold annually in the U.S., totaling more than $18 billion in revenue. Many of these shirts were designed by entrepreneurs who work from home, develop an idea and mass market it to the world. Much of their success is from selling and marketing shirts online on their own or through a reseller website. Coming up with a marketable shirt idea, designing a prototype and marketing it to the masses takes careful planning.

1. Create a relationship with a local screen printer if you would rather have more personal control of your business. While these stores may offer less profit margin, they are available to discuss designs and plan future projects.

2. Create a website or blog as your business hub. Establish a PayPal account so you can accept credit cards. Create a subscription template to email contacts new designs through this site.

3. Open a storefront on a drop shipper like Cafepress.com. Drop shipping companies allow you to submit shirt designs for direct ship to your customer as they are purchased. Drop shippers establish a free storefront for you, and you can link it to your regular website and your social media sites. Drop shippers also handle purchasing and shipping issues, relieving you from that step.

4. Market your shirts thoroughly on social media, especially on the Facebook walls of people the shirts relate to. Tweet new designs as they arrive. Post images and descriptions on Facebook. Run contests; for example, offer a giveaway for every 2,500 new "likes."

5. Create a Facebook business identity as your business grows. This creates a paid link to your website on the right margin of Facebook. Build a database of your "likes" and market directly to them if they will opt in to your website link on Facebook.

6. Create an eBay storefront and picture as many of your designs as possible, offering bulk discounts. Provide multiple angles of photos of your designs and offer them on other mediums, like mugs and hats, if your relationship with a screen printer offers such services.

7. Let your customers look through potential designs and vote on the ones they like. The design that gets the most votes gets printed. Accept customer designs and give a prize for the design with the most votes. This encourages the designer to market his design on his own to generate votes.

8. Find a celebrity willing to model your brand. Mail your best-designed shirts to actors and other celebrities and ask them for a picture wearing it. While this may seem unlikely, if you enclose a personal note explaining your startup and you offer to give a portion of the sales to the celebrity's charity of choice, you have a better chance.

Things Needed

Computer

Adobe Photoshop or similar design software

Website

Tips

Create a catchy label name that people can remember.

The design and the quality of the shirt must be very good.

Sell with attractive or very ugly models.

Visit the U.S. Small Business Administration and study operating an online business.